Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 1998
Bob Gaona was a fierce competitor and self-described `pretty rough guy" during his football playing career at Wake Forest under coaches Peahead Walker and Tom Rogers.
A two-way performer at tackle, he earned all-conference honors after nearly ending his college career prematurely with aspirations of joining the Marine Corps during the Korean War. Fortunately for the Deacons, those plans for military service never materialized, and when Rogers contacted Gaona to see if he would be willing to return to Wake the following fall, he was only too eager to do so.
Gaona was a fifth-round draft choice of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1953 and spent four seasons with the club as an offensive tackle. He played his final season with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1957 before back problems and a trade to the Los Angeles Rams prompted Gaona to retire as a player. He was selected by owner Art Rooney as a member of his personal all-time Steelers team in 1982.
Following his retirement from football, Gaona and his wife Dorothy remained in Southern California where he spent nearly 30 years with the Rockwell International Corporation and worked closely on the development of the NASA space shuttle program. He remained actively involved in football as a youth league coach and as an official on the high school and college levels. He also re-established ties to Wake Forest through his younger son Michael, who accepted a swimming scholarship to Wake and graduated from WFU in 1979.
In 1995, Gaona and Dorothy returned to North Carolina - a promise he had made to his wife when they had tearfully departed the area in the early 1950s.
Gaona was inducted into the Wake Forest Sports Hall of Fame on Jan. 24, 1998. He was also a member of the Beaver County (Penn.) Hall of Fame, the Ambridge (Penn) Hall of Fame, the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame and the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity Sports Hall of Fame.
Gaona was born Jan. 31, 1931 in Ambridge, Penn. He died on May 23, 2001.
